1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure pertains to the fields of sensing and monitoring, to computational intelligence, and to item tracking.
More particularly, the present disclosure pertains to applying computational intelligence to the self-monitoring of an item, object or device, when the device is associated with a particular user, to identify usage(s) or behavior(s), environmental context(s), or operational parameter(s) of the item, object or device.
More particularly, the present disclosure pertains to attaching local sensor(s) to a portable item, object, device, or container, or embedding local sensor(s) in a portable item, object, device, or container. The sensors(s) have suitable associated intelligent processing which is substantially collocated with the portable item, object, device, or container. The sensor(s) and intelligent processing are configured to determine a likelihood that the item, object, device, or container is lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or stolen, or otherwise in a context or use not appropriate for the item, object, device, or container.
2. Background Art
Persons routinely carry small, portable objects, devices, items, and various kinds of containers or packages about with them. Such portable items include, for example and without limitation, keys or key chains with multiple keys, wallets, computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), cell phones, handbags, backpacks, purses, briefcases, tools, toolkits, eye-glasses, removable items of clothing (gloves, scarves), children's toys and other children's items, watches, suitcases and valises, and similar items. Specific documents and transactional tools, such as credit cards, debit cards, drivers licenses and passports, are also routinely carried or transported about, either along with, within, or apart from the other exemplary portable items listed above.
Unfortunately, it is a common experience that such items are easily lost or misplaced by an owner, or by other authorized or designated users.
In some cases a portable item is misplaced within a home or office environment, in the sense that an owner or other user has forgotten where the item was last placed, stored, or concealed. Thus the item is not actually lost, in the sense that the item is still within a domain controlled by the legitimate owner or user, and the item may be found again (typically when the owner is searching for a completely different item altogether). However, to the extent that the location of the item is forgotten, so that the item is misplaced, it is not accessible to the owner or other authorized user in a timely way.
In other instances, an item may be lost away from the home, office, or other normal place of storage or usage. Often such an item proves to be permanently lost.
In other instances an authorized user actually has an item on-person when it should not be on their person. For example, an authorized user may remove an item from a workplace, when the item is intended to remain at the workplace. Such an item may be said to be wandering.
Compounding the problem of lost items is that certain items may be objects of illicit confiscation by a non-owner or other inappropriate or unauthorized person, i.e., the items may be stolen. Other times, an item may be misappropriated, that is, picked up by accident by a known associate, friend, or family member of the authorized user.
In this document, the term displaced is sometimes used to describe an item which may be any of lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or stolen. At present, the means for identifying and retrieving displaced items are limited, and often non-technical. The options are to remember where the item is and go back to get it (and hope the item is, in fact, where it's remembered to be); to come across the item by accident; or hope that some other person finds the item and returns it to its proper owner.
In recent years, some technological solutions have emerged. For example, some cell phones now come with an application which enables an owner to send a message to the phone from a computer terminal. If the phone is lost, the owner can send a message asking the phone to identify its location to the cell phone network. Alternatively, a message can be sent to the phone requesting the phone emit an audio signal to identify its location to persons in proximity to the cell phone.
A disadvantage to this technical solution is that it only works for devices (for example, cell phones or other similarly equipped PDAs) which are already configured as communications devices, and which are typically configured as expensive, multipurpose communications devices. A further disadvantage is that the solution requires that the owner of the communications device actually be aware that the device is lost.
Often a communications device can in fact be lost for a substantial period of time before an owner even notices that the device is missing. During the time interval between when the device is lost and when the owner realizes the device is lost, the owner may have traveled a substantial distance from the communications device, or failed to take the device with them when needed for some purpose. Further, the longer a communications device is lost, and particularly if lost outside a home, office, or other preferred usage location, the greater the risk of the device either being stolen or running out of battery power.
Other existing solutions are geared solely towards rigidly defined location determinations, usually for items that are in storage or maintained in a confined facility. Such solutions may, for example, identify when an item or device crosses a specified boundary of a region where the item is supposed to remain. Examples include store security systems, which detect when security tags are carried across the threshold of the store. Further, an item may well be lost, misplaced or even stolen, even while still within the defined boundary or geographic area. Such systems are also typically not programmed to vary their expectations of where an item should be located according to changes in time or date. Most critically, however, these security systems rely at least partly upon sensors which are external to the item in question, and also rely upon an artificial intelligence which is not collocated with the item itself, meaning the item cannot self determine its state as lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or stolen.
Other existing solutions are geared solely towards items which already have, integral to their nature and functionality, built-in processing capabilities.
What is needed, then, is a system and method for portable items to have a computational intelligence (or, “artificial intelligence”) which enables the portable items to self-assess, that is, self-identify, as being possibly lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or possibly stolen, even before an owner has identified that the item is lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or stolen. What is further needed is a system and method for portable items to self-assess/self-identify as being possibly lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or stolen based on criteria which are alternative to or in addition to location criteria.
When location criteria are appropriate, what is further needed is a system and method for portable items to self-assess/self-identify as being possibly lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or stolen based on more extended, enhanced, supplemental, or refined location criteria.
What is further needed is a system and method whereby a portable item not only has a computational intelligence by which to self-determine that it may be lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or stolen, but where the item then self-initiates signaling or communications with a legitimate owner or user, without requiring any previous prompting from the legitimate owner or user.
What is further needed is a system and method to associate and collocate, with portable items which do not conventionally have data processing, sensing, or communications elements associated with them, the necessary technical means (sensor(s), processor, and/or wireless communications systems) for substantially complete and independent self-assessment/self-identification of the item as having lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or stolen state, or a state of being extant, that is, not lost, misplaced, misappropriated, stolen, or wandering.
What is further needed is a system and method which is configured to be dynamically adaptable for association with different items.
What is further needed is a system and method which is configured to be dynamically adaptable for the identification of lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or stolen state of an item when the system and its associated physical item are intentionally, and appropriately, transferred from possession/control of a first person to the possession/control of a second person, where each person typically makes different use of the item or has different usage habits or patterns for the item.
What is further needed is a system and method which is configured to be dynamically adaptable for the identification not only of a possible lost, misplaced, misappropriated, wandering, or stolen state for an associated item, but also for the identification of a likelihood of other anomalous states, usages, conditions, or environments for the associated item.